Snowden Explains How Government Can Get "D**k Pics" in John Oliver Interview

Although notorious whistleblower Edward Snowden had initially made it his goal to point the spotlight away from himself and toward his documents, there is no doubt that, as a figure, people are either fascinated or infuriated at him, with little area in between for moderation.

So now, two years after Snowden's unprecedentedly large leak of NSA documents to the public, he sat down with an interview with comedian and host of HBO's "Last Week Tonight", John Oliver. Although the public was likely not expecting a formal, serious interview based off Oliver's history of poke-fun comedy, the interview did take a strange turn.

Oliver encouraged Snowden to put the idea of mass surveillance into layman's terms for those who were unfamiliar with how it worked. He later showed Snowden a collaboration video of Americans who were worried about the government collecting their nude photos, or "d**k pics". Snowden replied through chuckles that;

"The good news is that there's no program named the 'dick pic' program. The bad news... they are still collecting everybody's information, including your d**k pics."

Oliver asked if Americans should stop taking these pictures due to the government's mass surveillance, no doubt intending to pull a quick laugh from Snowden, but instead he got an unexpectedly sure response from Snowden.

"You shouldn't change your behavior because of a government agency somewhere that's doing the wrong thing," Snowden said. "If you sacrifice your values because you're afraid, you don't care about those values very much."

While not everyone approves of Snowden's methods of pushing progress to the people, there is no doubt that he stands correct in moral. Not all believe that leaking classified documents to the public is a proper course of action, there are few who would make the case that federal overreach and power-corruption is not a legitimate issue, or one to be feared.

Snowden noted that; "I do miss my country. I do miss my home. I do miss my family." We must be sure to remember that although snowden is a controversial figure, and lives in moderation. He has said himself he is not a terrorist, nor is he a patriot. He is simply a man.

That's all I have to say today, but I'll be back tomorrow.

"Bad artists imitate. Great artists steal." -Pablo Picasso Banksy